SHOW REPORT 2012 AND RESULTS!!

Firstly, this has been quickly bashed out so may not make any sense, so excuse any typos, grammatical errors, etc. Well, as you all know very well, the weather leading up to the show was terrible to say the least, and to be totally honest, we still didn’t know whether the show would be able to go ahead, even though we’d read every weather report saying that Sunday would be a dry day.

We’d gone over to the AHT on the Thursday night and helped by Roxy, Dave and Theresa erected what tents and rings we could do, in the rain, I would hasten to add.

They left and me and Kerry went over to see the overflow car park and that’s when we thought we might just have to cancel.The ground around the gate was a mess to say the least, and we knew that within a couple of lorries driving in, it would be unusable.

I contacted AHT immediately the next morning and they said they would get something sorted and arranged to meet us back over there on Saturday morning.

So, come Saturday and with it still rain, me and Kerry made our way over there again, this time met up with Rob and his daughter Kayleigh who were bringing tents over to erect for us, and met our AHT man Anthony, who showed us our new parking areas and said that no way did AHT wish to cancel the show and would do everything they could to allow the show to take place.

The show rings themselves couldn’t be faulted, and thankfully on the day not one person made a bad comment about the ring going.

Anthony said they were happy to allow a bigger paddock but told us to park lorries closer to the rings and trailers and cars in the overflow paddock.They were happy to remove fence posts and rails to make sure everyone got in safely without slipping, and it also meant there were in and out gates for horses safety.

We know three lorries had to be towed out, but from what I heard, one stalled at the entrance and became stuck, and the other two were first arrivals when the ground was still wet from the rain the night before, and by the time they came to leave, their lorries were stuck fast.

We also had to get the vet out on site twice during the day, through no fault of the show thought – one ripped its leg open jumping off the horsebox ramp – which ended up needed surgery in Rossdales hospital that afternoon (latest news is, he is doing well and fingers crossed no infection) and the second horse has had a problem of choke recently and the owners of the horse thought it was having another episode.

Sadly we aren’t able to have a vet on site all day – we have asked, but they didn’t feel an in-hand show warranted a vet being on site all day – especially when in all the years doing the show, the vet has only ever been called out once before and that again, was for a horse falling off the ramp.I think we should be very grateful that most of the Rossdales vets live only a couple of miles away from the hospital itself anyway.

Perhaps we need to see about getting a farrier on call for next year though as I had at least four people come up to me to ask if there was one about as their horses had pulled shoes, or twisted shoes.(Hint – check your horses shoes before you leave home!)

Thankfully Bob (our First Aid man) wasn’t required all day – not even for a plaster for a cut finger, so I suppose we should be very happy about that.

So to the show itself.

All our judges turned up when they were supposed to – and of course we very grateful to each and every one of them,.It’s so nice to know that we can attract the best judges in the country – our professional judges being judges who judge at the top level and/or do or have competed with their own at the Royal International Horse Show, Horse of the Year Show, etc. etc. and won.Our other judges who were not Panel Judges certainly have the experience to judge though.They’ve all been there and done it.

To make life for me easier now, I’m going to concentrate on ring by ring, so will start with Ring 1 – The Thoroughbred Ring.I’ll just list some details of the winners, but if you look at the very end of this report, I will give the placings in all classes (1st-6th).

Class 1 – Best Turned Out – Karen Nunn with Anthony’s Friend – a 10 year old chesnut mare by Timeless Times.(Newcomer to our show from Bury St Edmunds)

Class 2 – Novice – Chantel Woods with Night Trader – a 4 year old bay gelding, by Iffraaj.(Newcomer to our show from Diss)

Class 17 – Best Foreign Bred – Jamie Phillips with Loup Bleu – a 14 year old bay gelding by Nureyev.(Newcomer to the show from Leiston, Suffolk).

Class 18 – Local – Caroline Chamberlain with Dusk Ballet.

Challenge Trophies went to:

Banstead Manor Stud (BTO)

Anthony’s Friend

Cheveley Park Stud (Bred by)

Revolve with Lyn Danaher from Surrey

John Jenkins

Midnight Trader

John & Emma Berry

Celtic Lass

Cheveley Park Stud

Midnight Trader

Gay Kelleway

Mountainview Rover

RoR (Veteran)

Jurado Express

Golden Lantern

Asabache with Melanie Boggie from Norfolk

Longholes Stud

Anthony’s Friend

RoR (Raced on Flat)

Purple Moon

RoR (Raced N.H.)

Mountainview Rover

RoR (Male)

Purple Moon

RoR (Female)

Celtic Lass

Rabbah Bloodstock

Dusk Ballet

RoR (Raced GB and Abroad)

Purple Moon

Eddie Ahern

Rosie Future

Darley

Celtic Lass

Jockey Club Estates

Mountainview Rover

J&S Geake

Sir Charles Hutch

Willie Carson

Dusk Ballet

Frankie Dettori

Loup Bleu

Rossdales (Local TB)

Dusk Ballet

Tattersalls – Champion

Purple Moon

Cheveley Park Stud – Reserve Champion

Dusk Ballet

During the day, there were also additional awards made, such as Horse who ran the most – which was Strike Force with his owner/trainer Alison Hutchinson who is about to embark on his 94th race.Highest Official Rated horse went to Sagara for the Flat Raced and Zabadi for the National Hunt.Horse that won the most money went to Presvis who won over £4 million, with Zabadi taking a whole collection of additional awards in the National Hunt Class.

The Darley Cup was awarded to the Highest Placed Darley/Godolphin employee and this went to Robert Chapman handling Celtic Lass.Robert is a word rider for Godolphin.

There were also awards in the Show Horse class to Highest Placed Show Hunter, Show Hack andRiding Horse.These went to Mountainview Rover, Dusk Ballet and Revolve.

Lyn Danaher from Surrey also awarded rosettes to every veteran in the TB ring in memory of her much loved horse Golden Lantern, as well as additional prizes in this class too.

As everyone knows, every winner gets a prize at our show, and these ranged from Baileys and Dodson & Horrell Horse Feed, through to D&H herbs, cuddly toys, wine, chocolate, toiletries, etc.

And by the time the Championship finally came – not our fault – we limited the classes but you just kept coming in and in and in each time and everyone wanted to go under Jenny Pitman of course, and Jenny, to her credit, made sure she spoke to everyone of you in the ring.

So our Champion was awarded to last years Champion – Purple Moon with Dusk Ballet taking the Reserve spot – a complete copy of last years results – and under totally different judges.Can they make it three times in a row?

And now to the All Other Breeds Ring:

Class 19 – Best Turned Out – Ellie Metcalfe with Mount Pleasant Eclipse – a 12 year old bay mare – Part Bred Arab.(Newcomer from Norwich).

There were also additional awards which unfortunately the stewards didn’t manage to write down in time, so if you were in the Show Horse class and won either the Show Hunter, Riding Horse, Sports Horse, Show Hack, etc, then do please let us know so we can also publish that.

The Arab Raced award went to Rabah, with the Part Bred Arab going to Mrs Casey with Lenham Firefly.

There were also awards made by Sharmen Stratford in memory of “Hamish” and they went to the Longest Partnership, which was Sylva Chiquita with Pat Appleby who has owned the mare for all of 30 years.And the winner of the Hamish Candelabra went to The Don as being most suited for Family Mount.

The Speech Partnership trophy went to Stefania Martinoli with Agyl – an 8 year old Pure Bred Arab from Carlton, Newmarket.This award is handed over to whoever myself and Kerry think deserves it during the day.The combination may have come first or last – we award it for whatever reason we like, and this combination won it because every time we looked at the pair, Stefania was always kissing and cuddling her horse.The dedication to her horse really shown through and the fact that she’d even hacked from her yard to the show and then was hacking him back home again, for a round trip of about 25 miles, and then had to cycle back to the AHT to collect her car she’d left there the night before, truly brought home the spirit of loving her horse that much.Stefania has competed with her Endurance horse before at our show, but is now back here from her Italian home where she is undertaking a course in small animal surgery in her role as a vet.This award was a unanimous decision with all our stewards who had also seen the love Stefania awarded her horse all day.

Our youngest competitor of the day who took home a big cuddly toy was 4 year old Jack Martin from Beck Row, Suffolk.

Our show finally finished at 6.45pm and I must admit, it was one hell of a long day but hopefully judging by all the lovely emails, text messages, etc, we’ve received from competitors, everyone seemed to enjoy it, and with us receiving only one actual complaint (well, there has to be one doesn’t there), we might just decide to do another show next year!Seriously though, the show is getting too big for both myself and Kerry alone to organise and run and if it wasn’t for the help we get on the day, then we definitely could not do it.

But we need your help – if we are to continue doing the show, we need to know we’ve got more sponsors on board to pay for the classes – I’m losing friends rapidly with constantly begging them to sponsor classes and prizes, and also need to know we have a good band of stewards behind us, not only on the day, but to assign particular jobs beforehand to reduce the stress on myself and Kerry.(As many of you know, Kerry has been seriously ill for some time now and is due to go into hospital again shortly for more surgery), and I really can’t expect her to keep doing the work and hours we put into this show when she is undergoing treatment.

So, if anyone with good organisational skills would like to think about joining a committee for the show for next year, do let me know as soon as.If you intend competing at next years show, then don’t apply –we don’t want any stewards or committee members having to dash off to show their own horses during the day – it’s got to be someone who will commit themselves to doing a job both before, during and after the event, as, as you can see, I’m still doing the thank you letters and results, etc nearly a week after the event.

And now to more thank you’s.

Without local band Lady Gray – we wouldn’t have had a PA system on the day.So special thanks to all the lads in the band who allowed us to have use of it for the day, and to Tom Etges (Lead Guitar) who set it up on the morning of the show and then stayed all day to meet and greet at the gate and then help with general stewarding duties through till 7pm.

Thanks to Alex and Tanni – Alex who looked after our judges for the majority of the day and then ran back and forth between rings collecting result sheets – Tanni who Alex dragged along to help out (Alex’s little sister) and who got praise from every judge in the TB ring for her great work.

Thanks to Zoe and Kristine – who spent most of the afternoon as stewards in the All Other Breeds Ring after having a go in the TB ring to give Sue a break in the morning, and who also helped with general stewarding duties.

Thanks to Sue – who not only makes us our lovely rosettes but also stewards in the TB ring every year.

Thanks to Glynis and Hayley – who did stewarding in the All Other Breeds Ring for most of the morning and then helped out generally.

Thanks to Anne – who manned the refreshment stall from beginning to end of day.

Thanks to Lacey – who helped get the right rosettes, trophies and prizes into the ring on time.

Thanks to Tina – who year after year we can rely on to be there till the bitter end helping us dismantle rings, tents, etc, and who also did the sorting out job with Lacey.

Thanks to Rob and Kayleigh – who did a brilliant job in difficult circumstances with the parking which AHT had dictated to us.

Thanks to AHT who allow us the use of their grounds to hold the show each year, and who of course, is one of the beneficiaries of the money we raise on the day.

And we also hope Lucy Carvell enjoyed her time in the ring as guest judge alongside our fully qualified judges.

And of course – an enormous thank you not only to you lot for supporting the show, when so many shows only have 2 or 3 competitors in the classes, and there we are, turning down 20 plus entries because otherwise the show would be going on till the next day if we allowed all the entries we received to compete.Sorry to all those who I had to send back entry forms and cheques to leading up to the show – hopefully next year you will get your entry in early to experience what the show is all about.

And our biggest thank you must go to our judges – both local and those who travelled miles to get to us – we’re all so fortunate to have now got such a good reputation for our friendly family shows that judges are queuing up to come judge for us.

We’ve had some lovely letters from the judges all saying how well run and organised it was and how friendly all the competitors seemed with each other.This is what our show is about.We don’t want back-stabbing and bitching – go somewhere else if you want to do that.Our shows are put on for the novice and the experienced and hopefully in a safe and friendly environment where novices can learn from both the experienced competitors and judges, and our more experienced competitors get a chance to compete against winners from other shows around the surrounding counties.

We welcome new faces each year and hope this continues.

So that’s it done for another year.If you click on the Photos page, there are some photos of some of the winners and a few other odd shots taken during the day.If you have a nice photo of your horse or pony, we would be delighted to include it on the website, so please email it through (reduced size please) to colleensalmon@btinternet.com

And finally to say that we hope the day raised around the £3,000 figure for charities – which as soon as the money has all been cleared, will be distributed.

If I’ve left anybody off who should have been mentioned, please let me know immediately and I apologise sincerely.

If you want to sponsor a class next year, we will still keep it to £20 per class which will pay for a set of rosettes in whatever name you want plus a trophy for the class winner to keep.